Saturday, October 24, 2015

The spiritual vision for a house of worship along the west bank of the Halifax River some 125 years ago is still standing today and is as vital to the community as it was then.

The Grace Episcopal Church, 4110 S. Ridgewood Ave., was built in 1890 by the Meeker, Milburn, Hayden, Heaton, Vieullaume and Hammond families to meet the needs of their small town, which had a general store, hotel, winery and a doctor. For many, praising God meant a long and difficult journey by riverboat or horse cart to St. Mary’s located six miles to the north.

“The original church building has lasted through many hurricanes and much more,” Father Rick Burhans said. “God definitely has had his hands on this building.”

From Albany-Dean David Collum resigned his position at the Episcopal Cathredal of All Saints amid a heated controversy over Bishop William Love's opposition to same-sex marriage, which caused numerous parishioners to quit.In a letter to members, Collum, priest to the cathedral congregation for the past five years, said he made the decision "with a heavy heart," but denied the decision was influenced by the gay marriage inbroglio."Given the controversies surrounding the larger church, some may conclude my action is a reaction to the challenging situation," Collum wrote in a letter mailed Wednesday. "I would assure you that it is not."

Friday, October 23, 2015

Anglican Bishop Tim Thornton’s vivid purple cassock instantly marks him as an outsider at the Vatican’s Synod of Bishops on the family, a bright spot against a backdrop of deeper purple and red sashes and zucchettos worn by Catholic bishops and cardinals.Thornton, from Cornwall, England, is one of 14 “fraternal delegates” to bring views of other churches to the synod discussions. Others include representatives from the Baptist World Alliance and the Coptic Orthodox Church.

Thornton, whose work involves fostering dialogue between Anglicans and Catholics in England and Wales, said he was struck by the approach of some Catholic bishops at the synod.

“There have been some huge surprises. I think clearly for some of the bishops, the very idea of talking together and having a discussion that might change something is still a pretty big step for them,” he said.

From The Church Times-THE GAFCON Primates have accepted the Archbishop of Canterbury’s invitation to meet in January.

A communiqué issued by the Global South Primates after a meeting in Cairo last week also welcomed Archbishop Welby’s invitation to the Primates to set the agenda for the meeting as a “very helpful approach”. They have agreed on the agenda items they wish to request.

A GAFCON spokesman confirmed on Monday that the communiqué meant that its Primates had agreed to attend. The group had previously advised Archbishop Welby that it would not attend any meeting at which the Episcopal Church (TEC) in the United States or the Anglican Church of Canada were represented. But the decision by the Archbishop to invite the Primate of the Anglican Church in North America, Dr Foley Beach, has met one of their criteria for attendance.

The fate of a landmark church complex – historic and massive, but long vacant – is a mystery no more.

After years facing an uncertain future including possible sale for shopping development, the Cathedral Church of St. John at North Market Street (Business U.S. 13) and Concord Avenue (U.S. 202), will continue to do the Lord’s work.

So say leaders of the Episcopal Diocese of Delaware that owns the site, the Ministry of Caring that is acquiring the site and folks in the Brandywine Village neighborhood, where worries grew during its continued vacancy that a bad decision about its future could have been disastrous for the community.

From ENS-The following video about how The Episcopal Church is helping refugees escaping war and persecution to find new homes in France was first published in June 2013.Much of the story is still accurate more than 2 years later. However, since the video was published, Association d’Entraide aux Minorités d’Orient (Association to Support Eastern Minorities), set up to help the French government identify candidates eligible for asylum, has helped to resettle a further 1,300 refugees, bringing the total number to more than 2,600.

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

A group of 84 Church of England bishops have written to British Prime Minister David Cameron urging him to increase the number of Syrian refugees the country will take in by 2020 to at least 50,000.

Under pressure from public opinion to strengthen Britain’s response to the migrant crisis on Europe’s borders, the government has pledged to take in 20,000 Syrian refugees over the next five years.

“We believe such is this country’s great tradition of sanctuary and generosity of spirit that we could feasibly resettle at least 10,000 people a year for the next two years, rising to a minimum of 50,000 in total over the five year period you foresaw in your announcement,” the bishops wrote.

From Christian Today-Leaders of the conservative Anglican churches of the Global South have accepted the invitation of Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby to attend the meeting of the 38 Primates of the worldwide Anglican Communion in January.

Their decision, made at the recent Global South Anglican meeting that was moved to Cairo from Tunisia for security reasons, augurs well for Archbishop Welby's hopes of restructuring the communion in line with a federal model. This would allow unity to be maintained through communion with Canterbury, while also acknowleding the deep divisions between the liberal provinces of the West and the more conservative provinces of the South over issues such as homosexuality.

St. James the Great Episcopal Church has finally found a home — albeit temporarily.

The ousted Newport Beach church congregation will meet for the first time on Sunday at 9:30 a.m. at the Gray Matter Museum of Art, 485 E. 17th St., in Costa Mesa.

The group has met outside near the 601 Lido Condominiums tower since June, when they were locked out of the church on Via Lido.

In May, Bishop J. Jon Bruno announced the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles and a developer were negotiating the sale of the church and adjacent property. The diocese said the sale could be for as much as $15 million.

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

The Church of England has got a lot going for it. The Archbishop of Canterbury is respected and highly capable, it's not doing too badly numerically and it's got a bit of swagger back in its step.

On the other hand, even though the vexed question of the consecration of women as bishops was passed last year and they have been coming thick and fast ever since, no one could say that it is an entirely happy family. The elephant in the nave now is human sexuality, code for "Is it OK to be a gay Anglican?" This is a far more bitter pill for conservatives to swallow than the female bishops one and it could yet make shipwreck of the entire enterprise. It has arguably already done so for the Anglican Communion, of which it is the mother Church. The ties that bind it have never looked so fragile and there is quite a good possibility that a meeting of Primates called to Lambeth in January to resolve the question of how Churches stay Anglican while loathing each other will end in catastrophic failure.

Form Autralia-AN ANGLICAN priest suspected of sexual offences against children in northern NSW has been found dead in his home.

Reverend Campbell Brown was awaiting and internal church professional standards hearing when his body was discovered in his Hunter Valley home on Sunday.

The 80-year-old was accused during the 2013 Royal Commission into child sexual abuse of making an "implied admission of guilt" that he had sexually assaulted a young boy at the North Coast Children's Home in Lismore about five decades earlier.

In his most important address yet to the bishops gathered for the Vatican Synod on the Family, Pope Francis reasserted his authority Saturday, reminding the bishops that the synod operates “not only with Peter, but also under Peter.”

“The synodal path culminates in listening to the Bishop of Rome,” Francis said, who is “called to teach as ‘Pastor and Teacher of all Christians,’ not from his own personal convictions, but as supreme witness of the faith of the whole Church.”

Although the Pope gave a nod to proposals of his predecessors John Paul II and Benedict XVI for a rethinking of the exercise of the papacy, he left no doubt regarding who is calling the shots.

The pope, Francis said, guarantees “the obedience and the conformity of the Church to the will of God, the Gospel of Christ and the Church’s tradition.”More here-

Monday, October 19, 2015

From The Spectator UK-Well, it’s something, I suppose, that the Archbishops of Canterbury and York didn’t sign that ill-advised letter last month from 84 CofE bishops to the PM calling for the Government to take in 50,000 more Syrian migrants; Justin Welby and John Sentanu do have some redeeming sense of caution. Meanwhile the 84 are still waiting for a proper answer from the Home Office, apparently, which seems to be why they’re sharing their pique with The Observer today.

Quite the most devastating critique of that letter came, in fact, from a man who was rather grateful for them for their “love and their charity”. It was the Archbishop of Aleppo (the Melkite Greek Catholic one), Jean Clement Jeanbart, who is in London for the launch of the annual report from the charity Aid to the Church in Need – which I may say, makes sobering reading.

Sunday, October 18, 2015

Church leaders have expressed their anger at the government for denying them a say over new Sunday trading laws, in a major clash between ministers and bishops.Senior aides to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, protested to ministers that the Church was not properly consulted before George Osborne announced plans to allow shops to open for longer on Sundays.The Church of England now fears the government will attempt this week to sneak the new law through Parliament without it being scrutinised properly by the Anglican bishops who sit in the House of Lords.But one senior government adviser privately dismissed the concerns of the Church, saying: “We don’t give a s*** about the bishops.”

Pope Francis will tour a Kenyan slum, meet with Muslims and evangelical Christians and visit a refugee camp in the conflict-torn Central African Republic during his first trip to Africa next month, the Vatican said Saturday.

Francis will also pay tribute to Uganda’s martyrs during the three-nation trip Nov. 25-30 that will bring him face to face for the first time with the effects of Islamic extremism and Christian-Muslim violence on the continent.

The Vatican on Saturday unveiled the itinerary of the whirlwind trip that will pose security risks that have largely been absent on Francis’ foreign trips to date.